You will be pleased to know, as both John and I were, that Mr Boo is non the worse for his impromptu swim last night.  He was up and about and chatting quite normally at breakfast-time although his fur looked a bit scruffy and he smelt a bit of stagnant water.  Clearly he was still feeling the cold as we found him rather guiltily with his paws in John's slipper.

We are finding it hard to believe that this year both Chivers and Minnie Mou will be about eight years old.  We will have lived on the island eight years on the first of May and Chivers and Minnie joined us that autumn somewhat unexpectedly to be fair, first Chivers who was very poorly sheltering in Gregoris' garden next door, and then Minnie who was equally poorly (if not worse) but rescued by Mum from the garden opposite their then home in Lakoudia Street in Emba.  Charlie came next and then finally Mr Boo.  They are our surrogate children and we love them to bits.  We never bargained on having four and will probably never do so again but we have them now and wouldn't be without them.  They are the first things we look for in the morning and the last thing we check on before we go to bed at night - we probably drive Sean and Sharon mad calling for them but I cannot settle unless I have accounted for them all.

Monday means art and it was so beautiful (as February has been so far) that I chose to walk down to Sheila's.  Everywhere is so very green and lush at the moment.  Up here the spring flowers are about to burst into life - I have seen a couple of anemones but not here as yet.  Hopefully when Nicky is here at the weekend we might find some fresh wild asparagus - if we do it will be a little earlier than usual but this morning I saw a very active lizard running around so things are awake early this year.

I was very sad to come across a dead fox on my walk.  Wildlife here is scarce enough (thanks in part to the custom of hunting which is still a huge part of Cypriot village culture) so we rarely see live ones.  I don't know how this one met its fate, looking at the state of it I would say it had been out in the rains for a while poor thing.  Still I am guessing Savvas down the road will be happy that there is one less fox on the loose as he lets his birds (chickens, geese, guinea-fowl, turkeys and a solitary peacock) run wild just down the road.

You can tell by my early morning shadow that it was a truly beautiful day and I was more than a little warm when I arrived at Sheila's - I was somewhat pleased that I had left my body warmer at home today!!!  The views over to the coast were spectacular but I could see some very very black smoke in the distance and I later learned that a boat had caught fire in Latchi Harbour and affected one of the luxury yachts next door.  Happily no-one was hurt but there was nothing much left to the smaller one which apparently displayed an engine fault yesterday according to the local news.

I am at long last nearing completion of my picture of pomegranates - you can see some fading in parts which I did early on but Christmas, New Year and illness has meant this particular picture has taken longer than it would do normally.  I just have some odds and sods to put in the foreground and some more shadows and touching up the faded parts and then I will be doing something with the yellow background that John doesn't like!  I am undecided as to what to do next - so if anyone would like a picture done for them please let me know.

The shop where Sheila works and shows her art and where Klaus sells his decorated gourds has reopened after its Christmas break.  If you are looking for it, it is in Polis Square and called That Nice Shop.  Klaus has created a new cat ornament from a pair of gourds and this is going down to the shop shortly.  As normal I had a lovely morning with Sheila and lunch with Sheila and Klaus before I walked back home calling into the post office en route where I had two parcels waiting for me which are the new curtains for the lounge, we just need the blinds to be fitted now.

John had been busy this morning but had been able to fit in a coffee stop with Bassam which is good as I had seen Bassam yesterday with Lola and had promised John would call in.  We have ordered some new garden furniture which is due to be delivered sometime this week.  We have decided to make the space outside the kitchen into a seating area rather than an eating area and so we have temporarily moved the old furniture there to get used to the change.  This furniture is steadily disintegrating having been out in all weathers for the past seven or eight years!!

Finally John had his regular Skype chat with his mum tonight and we are pleased that she, Jackie and Stan are coming back over again later this year and even more pleased we have been able to secure the same accommodation because they really loved it and it was a bargain so thanks Kim for helping us out.